


Adding to canon is not the same thing as destroying canon

by TomFooleryPrime



Series: Musings and Analysis of the Star Trek Fandom [5]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Adoption, Canon Compliant, Essay, Family Drama, Family Dynamics, Gen, Meta, Non-fic, OpEd, San Diego Comic-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 12:57:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11647023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomFooleryPrime/pseuds/TomFooleryPrime
Summary: Some people are upset that Spock has a new adoptive sister. Let's break it down.





	Adding to canon is not the same thing as destroying canon

At San Diego Comic Con, we learned that Sonequa Martin-Green’s character, Michael Burnham, is Sarek’s adoptive daughter. The second I heard the news, all I could think was, “Let the hate begin.” And boy, did it ever.

I understand the disappointment, particularly with fan fic writers who invested a lot of time and effort into crafting stories that fit neatly into canon. Amazing how one sound bite can bulldoze right through decades of widely accepted fanon, huh? 

Let’s be real, those little behind the scenes moments are almost the entire point of fan fiction: some of us like something so much, we like to imagine all the things the writers _didn’t_ tell us, but now Michael Burnham has come along like a square peg in a round hole, rendering countless stories AU that previously adhered perfectly to canon. Some of mine included.

But fanon isn’t canon. One might say, “How come we’re just hearing about this _now_?” Surely Spock would have mentioned having an adoptive sister? But would he? _Would_ he though? 

No one had any idea he was engaged to T’Pring until the _Enterprise_ showed up to Vulcan on Spock’s impromptu wedding day in the _TOS_ episode, “Amok Time.” What was it he said when Lieutenant Uhura asked who the lovely woman on the viewscreen was?

_If you watch closely enough and get creative with your interpretation, I swear Christine Chapel mouths the word, “bullshit.”_

And no one knew that Spock had a strained relationship with his father until that time dear old Sarek hopped on _Enterprise_ for the Coridan admission debate in the _TOS_ episode, “Journey to Babel.” Kirk urged Spock to go down to the planet and visit his family before they left orbit, and what was Spock’s reply?

_I can’t think of a better example of where Spock made Kirk look like a total asshole._

I can maybe understand that he never brought his father up in typical conversation, but you would think once they received a mission to pick up Ambassador Sarek from Vulcan that Spock might have mentioned, "Yeah, it's no big deal or anything, but he's my dad." But of _course_ not. Of _course_ it would be "logical" to wait until the last possible moment just to amp up the cringeworthiness. And then there’s the fact that Kirk had known Spock for _decades_ before finding out he had a half-brother named Sybok in _Star Trek V: The Final Frontier_.

_You would think Kirk would be used to Spock family bombshells by now._

So if anything, the idea that Spock had a secret adoptive sister actually feels _more_ in keeping with canon than going against it. Given the weight of the evidence, I wouldn’t be all that shocked to discover he had three step mothers, a couple of wives, a brother-in-law who worked in engineering, and a whole herd of secret love children drifting around out there. I mean, it happened often enough that even _Saturday Night Live_ parodied it. 

_Spock-O could have been real and you know it. So yeah, there are worse things that could happen to the fandom than Michael Burnham._

The other thing is, as viewers, we tend to get into the habit of thinking that if a character doesn’t specifically address something on screen in front of other characters, other characters are in the dark along with the viewers. Like if a character didn’t explicitly announce some detail about their personal life to the world, not only did it never happen, it never _could_ have happened. And that’s just silly. Think about this: Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew spent five years together on that mission, and we only got to view a little less than 66 hours of it. So imagine all the conversations in the mess hall we as viewers missed out on. Did anyone flip out when it was revealed that Dr. McCoy had a daughter in _The Animated Series_? You would think he would have mentioned her in _The Original Series_ , no? Maybe he _did_ , but the viewers just weren't invited to that conversation. 

Going back and adding _to_ canon is not the same thing as destroying canon. _Star Trek_ , particularly _The Original Serie_ s, was always more focused on exploring the galaxy and meeting new civilizations – its primary purpose wasn’t to flesh out complicated life stories for each of the main characters. When you think about it, there’s so much we don’t know about Spock’s upbringing or Sarek and Amanda's origins. Almost everything we _do_ know about this family comes from two episodes – “Journey to Babel” in _The Original Series_ and “Yesteryear” in _The Animated Series_.

I think because we spent more than five decades without any concrete ideas of how Sarek and Amanda met, what Spock’s formative years were really like, or how their family dynamics worked, we just filled in the blanks for ourselves. But fifty years is a long time for the lines between canon and fanon to start getting blurred.

So I’m actually tickled pink at the thought that Spock had an adoptive sister, not furious that they’re "corrupting" more than fifty years of canon. It would be tampering with canon to claim that Spock never existed, that Chekov was a flower child, or that  _Starship Troopers_ is actually some kind of prequel to Kirk and the starship _Enterprise,_ but writing in a sister for Spock where one previously didn’t exist isn’t quite the same thing. 

 

  _Would you like to know more?_

The writers of the show are just doing what we as fan fic writers do all the time – filling in the gaps. You’re definitely allowed to feel however you want to feel about it. And I do understand a lot of the dismay and shock. It really sucks to pour your heart and soul into something, polishing it for months or even years until it’s perfect, and then have Michael Burnham thrown into the mix and it almost feels like a bad Photoshop job over your favorite family portrait, ruining your origins fics for Sarek/Amanda or Spuhura or Spirk or Spones or Spotty? (Is that actually what the Spock/Scotty ship is called?). It’s perfectly acceptable to say that Michael Burnham’s existence has ruined your perception of canon, but I don’t think it should be confused with ruining actual canon.  

And worst case scenario… fanfic writers will just do what they’ve always done: include disclaimers explaining how they hate certain aspects of canon so they just plan to completely ignore it. That’s their prerogative, but I often find it disappointing. I see it with Sybok in Sarek/Amanda fics all the time. Many people prefer to just write him out, and while it is tempting to pretend like _The Final Frontier_ never happened, I’ve always included him. I think it does reality a huge disservice to cut him out, and I think it will be just as bad to do the same thing to Michael. 

People get hung up on the idea that Spock was so lonely and misunderstood, but what about the loneliness that _Sybok_ must have felt, having his mother die and going to live with a human step-mother, a half brother, and a father he barely knew, if he ever even knew him at all before his mother’s passing? I loved Sybok’s addition because he helps represent the complex reality of blended families. Between Sarek, Amanda, Spock, and Sybok, I think that family was rife with loneliness and misunderstanding long before Michael Burnham was written in.  

I think Michael, if I understand her story correctly that she’s an orphan who was taken in by Sarek and Amanda, only serves to add to the rich tapestry of Spock’s unique family, and it certainly seems as if she'll fit right in with the other misfits in Sarek's brood. A human wife, a moody Vulcan son from a previous relationship, a half-human son from his current marriage, and now an adoptive human daughter. I feel like that’s a  _true_ picture of a modern family in all its messy and complicated and beautiful glory. 

People like to romanticize the idea of a “traditional” family, but I like the “messier” version so much more. I think it actually fits in better with Spock’s character. I’m sure there are some who will ask, “But then how can you explain why he would say he felt so lonely growing up if he had not one but _two_ siblings?” I also imagine many of those people were raised as an only child. 

We don’t really know how much of an age gap exists between Spock and Sybok (or between Spock and Michael Burnham), but just imagine for a second that you’re Spock, and you have an older brother who’s constantly disappointing your father with his talk about emotions and a human adoptive sister who’s constantly struggling to fit in on Vulcan too. It might be easy to feel like an afterthought at times, especially because Sybok is fully Vulcan like Sarek and Michael is fully human like Amanda and _you_  almost feel like something “other.” 

Not that Spock _feels_ of course. No, he would “never” do that. But I look forward to seeing how this all plays out and I sincerely hope people give her a chance (canonwise and fanonwise) before dismissing her altogether because she “ruins” Spock’s traditional nuclear family. 

During the Comic Con panel, producer Alex Kurtzman insisted they have a good canon explanation for why Spock never mentions Michael. He was quoted as saying, “We’re aware [of the situation]. You’ll see where it’s going, but we are staying consistent with canon.” So I’m inclined to keep an open mind and see where they take it before dismissing it outright for being “too ludicrous.” Spock always held his cards close to his chest where his family was concerned, and weirder things have happened within the _Trek_ universe. Give Michael Burnham a chance. 


End file.
